Regional Stakeholder Teleconferences on Exchanges – ACTION

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is holding a series of teleconferences throughout the country to update stakeholders on the latest information regarding implementation of the Health Insurance Marketplaces (Exchanges) and discuss strategies to educate the uninsured, under-insured, and small businesses about expanded insurance\coverage. Note: the first teleconference is scheduled for September 11 from 10:00AM-12:00PM EDT for Region I (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont). `

Eight States Receive New Grants to Establish Exchanges - INFORMATION

On August 23, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that eight states (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and Vermont) have received new grants to help support the establishment of Affordable Insurance Exchanges.

California, Hawaii, Iowa, and New York were awarded Level One Exchange Establishment grants, which provide one year of funding to states that have begun the process of building their Exchange. Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, and Vermont were awarded Level Two Establishment grants, which are provided to states that are further along in building their Exchange and offers funding over multiple years.

Forty-nine states, the District of Columbia and four territories received grants to begin planning their Exchanges and 34 states (included these eight new awardees) and the District of Columbia have also received Establishment grants to begin building their Exchanges.

A detailed breakdown of each grant award and what each state plans to do with its Exchange funding is available through the map tool on Healthcare.gov.

The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, released the final “Blueprint for Approval of Affordable State-based and State Partnership Insurance Exchanges”.

According to CMS, states may use the Blueprint to demonstrate how their Affordable Insurance Exchange will work to offer a wide range of competitively priced private health insurance options.

The Blueprint outlines:

functions that will be performed by exchanges run by the states, or “state-based exchanges”;

functions performed by exchanges operated as partnerships between the federal government and states; and

functions that states can perform in “federally facilitated” exchanges that HHS will set up in states that do not operate either of the other two types of exchanges.

The Blueprint also sets forth the application process for states seeking to enter into a Partnership Exchange. If a state wants to operate its own Exchange or a Partnership Exchange in 2014, HHS will review and potentially approve or conditionally approve the Exchange no later than Jan. 1, 2013, so it can begin offering coverage on Jan. 1, 2014.